Barrie Holland obit

Tributes paid to Hatfield Star Wars actor Barrie Holland

 

He was not on the list.

Tributes have been paid to Hatfield actor Barrie Holland, the man behind one of the most famous lines in Star Wars history.

Mr Holland passed away on December 23 last year at the age of 85, but his name will forever be etched into movie history for his role in the iconic franchise.

Playing Lieutenant Renz in Return of the Jedi, he uttered the immortal line "You Rebel scum" to Harrison Ford's Han Solo character.

"My dad is the actor who says the 'You Rebel scum' line to Harrison Ford," his daughter Camilla Holland told the Welwyn Hatfield Times.

"The popularity of that line has definitely grown as time has gone on, but that is such a cool thing to say 'my dad said one of the most important lines in Star Wars history'."

Barrie got the biggest role of his career without auditioning. He was initially on set as an extra, but was informed by director Richard Marquand that he wanted him to "play an Imperial commander and have a speaking piece".

In one of the takes that didn't make the final cut of the film, Harrison Ford playfully slapped Barrie, telling him "nobody calls me that".

He would appear as an extra in plenty of other blockbuster hits throughout the 1970s and 80s, including three Indiana Jones films, five James Bond movies, Superman, The Shining, Clash of the Titans and Quadrophenia.

He was also in 1989's Batman, starring Michael Keaton, a film that provided Camilla with one of her most fond childhood memories.

"As a child he took me to the set of the original Batman movie, because it was filmed at Hatfield House," she remembers.

"I got to explore the whole thing, which was such an incredible experience. He knew everyone that worked behind the scenes, and they all loved him."

And throughout his storied big screen career, Barrie accumulated a star-studded autography collection that proved to be the talk of Hatfield.

"When we were little, everyone in Welwyn Hatfield knew my dad," Camilla continues.

"My dad had this sort of museum in the house, this long hallway that was decorated with pictures of him on movie sets. I remember there was one with Steven Spielberg, and another with Harrison Ford, and all these pictures were signed.

"People would just come round and knock on the door, and I’d always think they were coming to see me, but we’d open the door and they’d say 'I’ve got my friend here, they want to look at your dad’s autographs'.

"Even when we were teenagers, people would still come up to us at parties and ask about dad."

Barrie Holland was born in Luton on May 23, 1938, before joining the army when he turned 18.

His first taste of acting came on a German stage when he played Francis Flute in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream, but upon returning to UK, he would take up a job in Vauxhall's PR department.

He turned his hand to modelling too, appearing in adverts for his employer, as well as Fortnum and Mason.

"I remember him always being so well dressed, because of his modelling. He’d never go out in a tracksuit or a pair of trainers. He was impeccably dressed all the time," Camilla recalls.

"He was very funny and had a great sense of humour. It was a very childish sense of humour, and my mum would always roll her eyes at him, but we loved him. Children absolutely loved my dad because he was so funny.

"He was very knowledgeable. He knew everything about films, even obscure stuff. I remember he was at a convention with Danny Glover, and he was talking to him about these obscure films he’d been in, when everyone else wanted to talk about his biggest movies.

"He was well loved and well respected, but to me, he was dad."

Lucas Films also paid tribute to Barrie, with a statement reading: "Among many highlights in the film Return of the Jedi are the memorable one-liners delivered by characters throughout the film, such as Admiral Ackbar’s 'It’s a trap', Han Solo’s 'Fly casual', and, of course, Lieutenant Renz’s 'You Rebel scum', a three-word barb infused with so much conspicuous contempt by actor Barrie Holland that it has taken on a life of its own among Star Wars fans.

"We were very saddened to learn of Mr Holland’s passing, an actor who had performed many uncredited roles in Lucasfilm productions throughout the 1980s.

"Thanks to his legendary one-liner in Return of the Jedi, however, he will be forever remembered by Star Wars fans as the Imperial agent who delivered what may be the saga’s most delightful and oft-quoted villainous sneer."

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